Chapter 10

Day 6

Bond was currently seated at the dining table in his hotel room, looking down at his laptop as it powered up. He knew he'd seen the girl before – recently, too, he knew it – but where? Her refusal to give a name only fuelled his curiosity. And he still recalled the conversation between himself and Three Speed at the bar two days ago; he had not given her name, either. How unhelpful.

Bond had decided that today, he would start surveillance on Chong. Both the apartment and the computer store Chong worked at were located in a suburb outside the city's central business district, still somewhat populous, but not to the same degree as the CBD.

The girl indicated that it would be up to a forty-five minute drive away from the hotel, less if traffic was light, which it hopefully would be now that the traffic from the morning peak was dwindling. Bond figured that they would arrive by eleven o'clock or so, at which point he planned to break into and bug Chong's apartment, then stakeout the computer store Chong worked at and follow him when he left the store by planting a homing beacon on his car.

He was dressed and ready to go, with his Walther in its holster and a satchel of gadgets on the floor beside him. But first...

Bond and the girl had taken breakfast in the hotel room that morning, and the maid had long since taken the used crockery away. Today, he had decided to try the buttermilk pancakes. Not the best, but they were filling, and, he supposed, that was what mattered.

Bond told the girl he wanted to type an email report before leaving. The girl was fine with that; she decided to take a shower and get dressed while waiting. So, while the girl was in the shower, Bond decided to search for information about her online. As the laptop finished loading, Bond recalled where he had seen the girl: he had recently seen a picture of her on the Internet. Well, on a computer, at any rate. Recently, too: he was certain it had been since his arrival in Gazth-Sonika.

He loaded the laptop's web browser and connected to the hotel's wireless network. He heard the hiss of the shower starting to run.

He decided to use Gazth-Sonikan news websites first; maybe he saw her in a news article's attached picture while browsing local news websites, as he had made a point of checking online news at least once a day. If nothing came up here, he would try the SIS database. If the girl was finished before he was, he would simply resume the search when they got back.

Then it hit him. He had seen her the day he saw Matthews. On a news website that Matthews had shown him.

Bond looked through various news websites until he found one that looked familiar. It had the same header and menu as the one Matthews had shown him. He then started going through the archive of news pages.

In the background, the hiss of the shower abruptly stopped. Bond looked up in the direction of the bathroom for a second, then looked back down at the computer.

The archived news pages were arranged by date, with a list of stories appearing for every day. Bond gave randomly selected stories a cursory glance. He was pretty sure it was something crime-related, too, so he gave preference to those headlines. He doubted that it was a sports or gossip story, so he didn't bother to look through them. If need be, he would return to them for another look.

He had to go back a couple of months, taking him several minutes as he went through several news articles, before finding what he was looking for.

His eyes widened when he saw the girl's mug shot on the news page he just opened.

The headline for the article was Suspects named in Korslan murder.

The name in the caption was Madlax.

Madlax.

He recalled what Matthews had told him – Madlax was supposed to be a mercenary agent operating in Gazth-Sonika, who was rumoured to be one of the best agents in the country.

And now, Madlax was in his employ, acting as his guide and bodyguard.

Getting dressed in his hotel suite.

Madlax emerged from around the corner, clad in the same clothes she arrived in the night before, her hair still damp. "Sorry for keeping you waiting. Are you ready to go, Mister Bond?"

Bond turned from the monitor to face her. And stared.